JDG, Top Esports, and Bilibili dominate LPL Summer

LPL Summer is currently underway and after the first three weeks, three teams dominate the competition: JD Gaming, Top Esports, and Bilibili Gaming. All of them won every match they’ve played with one exception.

In the case of JDG and Bilibili, these results are exactly what we expected. After all, both teams played in the Grand Final of LPL Summer and then went on to play in the Grand Final of MSI as well. Everything seems to indicate that this season will belong to China.

The last Chinese team to win the tournament was EDward Gaming. This happened back in 2021, so it’s not that long ago. In 2022, both of the grand finalists were from South Korea.

The Chinese competitors probably want to take revenge for what happened there and prove that they still have what it takes to win. Internationally, their only real rivals will be from LCK: Gen.G Esports and T1.

Current results in LPL Summer

LPL Summer has been full of interesting matches so far. In a rather peculiar way, JDG lost their first match against WBG. This was most likely a result of a lapse in concentration. After winning MSI 2023, JDG took a prolonged break. Despite returning to their usual training before the start of LPL Summer, they weren’t as sharp as before.

But immediately after suffering this loss, they went back to winning match after match and got seven consecutive victories.

JDG 2:0 BLG

Fighting forever#JDGwin pic.twitter.com/xV60kUkw94

— JD Gaming (@JDGaming) June 18, 2023

Another team that had a phenomenal run in the first three weeks of the split was Top Esports. In LPL Spring 2023, they only finished 7^th-8^th. But now they seem to be much stronger and more determined than ever to secure a spot at Worlds 2023.

Great teams might fail to get excellent results in the Spring Split. But they usually try much harder in the Summer Split because that’s the tournament that truly matters. In LPL, because of the high number of participants, it’s really hard to finish among the best and qualify for Worlds.

To give themselves the best chance to succeed, teams need to finish the group stage near the top. That will give them a better spot in the playoffs, with fewer matches to play to reach the Grand Final.

Bilibili Gaming are the third team that seems very hard to beat at the moment. Their record is 6 W – 1 L and they’ll likely continue to win.

Header: Riot Games